The sands reflected the sky's iridescent light: viridian, cerulean, pearl. Plumes rose like peacock feathers from Zoe's footprints as she charged across the dunes. Drums pounded in her chest. She no longer felt her heartbeat, rather some dark hole pulsed beneath the star of Moth’s mirror. The hunger branded to her soul ebbed and flowed like a tide, and the deep waters within her longed for more.

Bella ran beside her, keeping pace as Anton’s eyes skimmed ahead. The shack shrank behind them. The small building lay close to the shoreline, but no waves lapped. Instead, a vast coral reef extended away from the shoreline for miles. No water flowed between the reef, leaving them like alien buildings — some several stories tall — and the movement within came from strange creatures that Zoe only saw in glimpses. The smell of salt and seaweed hung thick in the air, but it was refreshing, a scent of life rather than decay.

Behind the shack was a string of other buildings equally rickety, most likely a series of tourist traps from some forgotten island of old Earth. The beach curved away in both directions, but a thick jungle grew tall in the island’s heart. Birdcall came from the trees, and Zoe realized how much she missed the sounds and smell of a living environment — something long deadened on the frozen island she just escaped.

Several dunes lay ahead of her, and she focused on the hunger pangs in her heart. A bow twanged, and an arrow arced over the sand. A chorus of strings snapped and a dozen arrows sailed into the air. They flew toward Zoe and Bella.

With a grin, Zoe leaped into the air toward the arrows. Her hand formed a chain, and she spun it into a shield. The chain hummed as it shattered the shafts into splinters. One arrow shot past the chain. Her Insight read its movement as though it were in slow motion, and she chomped down with a grin to snap the arrow in half. The taste of wood filled her mouth, and she spat as she landed heavy in the sand. A plume erupted high to reflect the colors of the sky in a drifting cloud. More arrows shot into the air.

“Enough of this,” Zoe said. “You see where they’re coming from, Anton?”

“They’re coming from beneath the sand,” Anton said. “The location keeps shifting.”

Bella strode ahead of Zoe. Black energy flowed from her blade as she swung at the incoming arrows. The heavy, anchoring energy coating Bella’s runeblade drew the arrows in and she sliced through them with ease.

“What’s the plan?” Bella asked.

Zoe grinned.

“How high can you toss me?”

“Pretty high, I reckon.”

Zoe nodded and ran toward her friend. Bella held her sword out flat with one hand on the pommel and the other gripping the blade. Zoe blurred as she put all her effort into speed. She stepped up onto the blade, and just as her foot touched down, Bella launched her up at the same time as Zoe leaped and the results were phenomenal.

Air rushed past her as Zoe sailed up into the hallucinogenic sky. She laughed as she hit the zenith high above the beach. She could see the entire island. The beach ringed the green heart of the jungle, and the reef ringed the beach, in the distance, floating in the sky, were several other islands that appeared similar. Zoe shifted her attention to the sand below as she turned over in the air and lowered her fist.

She fell for seconds. Long enough to control her breathing and focus on her body path. Below her, Bella parried arrows and sidestepped a large harpoon. All of them shot out of the sand nearby. Zoe steered toward the source of the projectiles as best she could, but she wasn’t worried about accuracy, only power.

She hit the ground like an artillery shell and rocked the Bell at the Center of the World. The sand shuddered and burst up almost half the distance of Zoe’s fall. A great wave echoed out as sand and sound tore themselves into a frenzied wall. Zoe stood at the bottom of the crater, the power of her Skein thrumming, and gazed up at the people falling above her.

The seven men had hidden in the sand, but Zoe’s blast launched them up. Blood leaked from their mouths, and from the looseness of their bodies, the explosion broke several bones. Zoe’s hand twisted into a claw.

[Empress of Time]

“Catch them, Bella,” Zoe asked.

Bella darted through the wave of sand. Her eyes were wide, but pale with the touch of the runeblade. Dark energy rushed out from her sword as she darted between the suspended bodies. The black anchors pulsed and crackled, and as Bella’s blade tapped the last man, black lightning arced out in a simulacrum of chains and drew them together into a bundle. Zoe released her hold on time and the last of the sand rained down onto the men as they lay limp and contorted.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Good job,” Zoe said.

Bella nodded.

“Cheers, mate.”

Anton’s eyes skimmed around them.

“I only see bows,” he said. “Where’s the harpooner?”

Zoe looked about and waited for the aforementioned enemy to rise from the sands.

“No sign,” she said with a frown. “I detected eight people when I struck the ground, but only seven went up. Must have slipped away.”

“I’ll find them,” Anton said.

His eye darted away, and in the distance, a dozen other eyes shot out from the shack like chrome fireworks.

Bella walked over to the bundle of archers.

“Look at their funny hats,” she said.

All the men wore skullcaps of a tawny material. Bella picked one up and flexed it before tossing it over to Zoe.

“Check it out.”

Zoe rubbed the material between her Mirrored fingers. The sensation she received was only an echo, but it felt rough and stretchy in equal measure. After a moment, she received a notification.

[Ghost Shark Skull Cap]

[Dexterity +5]

[When anointed by spirit water, it allows the wearer to swim through sand]

Zoe raised her eyebrows.

“That’s a nice item,” she said. “Explains what they were doing underground. What’s the spirit water, though?”

Bella shrugged and was about to answer when the cap crumbled to dust in the wind.

“What the hell?”

“When they wake up, we can ask them.”

Zoe set about checking the archers. None of them had any injuries that wouldn’t heal with Vitality and time, so she wrapped a chain of Mirror around them and hauled them back to the shack. Bella swung her sword idly through the air as they walked together.

“What kept you back?” she asked.

From her tone, Zoe could tell she was asking about Oriz. Both of them knew she was alive when they left the cocoon, but what would happen next had been uncertain.

“Oriz found me,” Zoe said. “The Witch transformed her into a Mubilashi.”

Bella gasped, she stopped walking, and Zoe stopped a few paces later.

“How did you escape?” Bella asked.

“I… I killed it,” she said. “A Mountain came for me, and I used the portal to weaken the Mubilashi before I killed it.”

“You killed a Mubilashi.”

“Maybe it was weaker, or a Mubilashi-seed, or… I’m not sure.”

“Was it easy?”

“Hell no.”

“Then give yourself some credit,” Bella said with a grin. “You’re unstoppable, Zoe. I’m glad you’re on my team.”

“Always,” Zoe said.

Bella started walking again. She clapped Zoe on the shoulder as she passed her.

“A bloody Mubilashi,” she said with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t believe it if you weren’t so straight-faced all the time.”

But Zoe saw the tears in her eyes as Bella pushed on ahead. She gave her friend her space as she hauled the bodies behind on their way to the shack.

###

Skidmark leaned in the shack doorway when they arrived.

“Anton gave me a play-by-play, but it didn’t matter when I felt that explosion rip through my guts,” she said as she looked Zoe up and down. “You’re something else now, aren’t you?”

“The harpooner is still out there,” Zoe said as she stepped past Skidmark to enter the shack. “So, I didn’t get them all.”

“Luck, I’m sure.”

“I think I’ve found the harpooner,” Anton said. “There’s a man hiding in the trees. Looks like an old public toilet. Concrete building, concrete floors. I can direct you.”

Zoe glanced at Bella.

“You coming?” she asked softly.

Bella shrugged.

“I’ll watch the prisoners,” she said. “And our survivors. What do you think, can we get some sun?”

Anton nodded.

“It seems safe to me, and I’ll watch the perimeter. It will be good for everyone to stretch their legs.”

Skidmark walked outside with long exaggerated steps.

“I’m going,” she said. “If I have to spend another minute cooped up, I’ll… I don’t know.”

Zoe nodded and looked around at the shack. There were signs that this place used to be a bar before it was boarded up. Some signs on the walls advertised various spirits. Shelves behind the rotted bar where bottles might have stood.

“Is there any water?” she asked. “Any food?”

Bella glanced at the survivors.

“I’ll get this lot helping with that,” she said.

“Sure,” Anton added as he twirled a silver eye around his finger. “Why not get more eyes on the job?”

“The sass,” Bella said.

“Let’s go,” Zoe said to Skidmark.

###

Humidity roiled in the jungle’s shade, and Zoe conjured her Mirrored skin to keep herself cool. Beads of condensation ran down her glassy armor as she pushed through thick undergrowth. Skidmark hopped along behind her, the Scottish woman nimble enough to overcome the dense obstacles.

Monkeys lurked in the trees and watched the two women pass by with multiple sets of unblinking eyes. The beasts were too low-level to attempt any attacks. Whenever Zoe got too close, they raced away through the treetops in silence.

Anton’s floating eye led them deep into the trees until they stumbled upon the remnants of a trail. Weeds poked up through the cracked concrete, and ahead lay a squat cube of a building with bars on the windows.

“He’s in there,” Anton said. “There’s only one entrance.”

Zoe surveyed the surroundings.

“Skidmark,” she whispered. “I want you to remain outside the building. If he attempts to escape, use your technique to send him back through the windows.”

Skidmark nodded, her usual joking manner serious, though her toe tapped with excitement.

“Anton, help her keep an eye on things.”

“Got it, boss.”

With a nod, Zoe stood and strode toward the bathroom door. As she got closer, she heard whispering coming from inside. Shadows filled the interior, darker than the shady jungle outside, but Zoe’s Insight pierced the dark, and the whispers hit her ears with all the information they tried to hide.

A man knelt inside, and he was communicating.

Zoe strode in through the door and saw a giant of a man crouched over a conch shell.

“Please, Big Bob,” he whispered. “I need you to send help, they’ve overwhelmed us completely.”

“Who’s Big Bob?” Zoe asked.